The Akatsuki Portrait
by E-chu
Summary: SasuNaru. Jealous of Sasuke's latest painting, Naruto commits a wanton act of destruction but finds himself in the strange world of Akatsuki, an experience that could change him forever...
1. Sasuke

This seems a bit short. I started it last week before getting distracted by Vampire and decided to upload it now because I don't think I'll have time to write a whole chapter tonight for Vampire. More chapters to come, though you might have to wait a bit. There may be spoilers in later chapters.

**Disclaimer: **Sadly, Naruto isn't mine but I have carrot cake to make the disappointment easier to live with. Mmm... carroty...

* * *

Naruto glared at his eternal enemy, Sasuke, who was resting his head against the whitewashed wall in an overly cool pose. Naturally, Iruka was talking about his favourite student again. He never talked about Naruto.

Okay, so that wasn't true, Naruto reminded himself. He talked about Naruto plenty but that was invariably an announcement in assembly that a certain blonde-haired student had caused a ruckus yet again. The young teacher was different with Sasuke though, brushing him with constant praise.

He was talking about Sasuke's latest painting to the gathered students; wittering about how Sasuke had poured his entire heart and soul into the painting. Ha! Sasuke having a soul? Naruto snorted; if Sasuke had a soul it was black and dripping like tar. Of course, that was pretty much obvious from his painting. Just some ugly red clouds on a black background – even Naruto could see that it was dreadful.

Still, that hadn't stopped Iruka hanging the canvas in the main hall of the school and forcing Naruto, like the other students, to come and stare at Sasuke's latest 'work of art'.

Seriously, a blind caterpillar could do better.

Sasuke's dark eyes met Naruto's wondering gaze. Naruto glared back, filling his look with as much vehement hostility as he could muster.

Sasuke's expression didn't change.

With a tut, Naruto turned on his heel and pushed his way out of the hall, ignoring Iruka's remonstrations. Outside, he took up his usual place on the swing. His feet dragged in the dust as the wooden seat swayed under his weight. He remembered a time when his feet hadn't touched the ground. He'd grown since then but nothing had changed.

The first time Naruto had met Sasuke was on the first day of school. It was art class and Sasuke was excelling in that, as he was in every other subject. Though the paintings he had been producing recently all looked little more than a jumbled mess to Naruto, he did admit to himself that Sasuke was a good artist; while the rest of the class had been drawing stick figures, Sasuke was delicately adding subtle pencil shades to a portrait or applying dappled light to a still lake with swift brushstrokes.

In that first lesson, the girls – and some of the boys – had crowded around Sasuke, fascinated by his composure. The boy who had been thrust into fame by the brutal murder of his entire family was a mysterious element to them and there was something undeniably attractive about that.

Naruto sneered at him from the back of the class where he was stumped by his drawing. He'd painted himself, a blob of orange with yellow spikes, but the rest of the paper was annoyingly blank. It irked him no end that he never had those flashes of inspiration that artists would supposed to have.

He looked up at the sound of a murmuring from the fan girls. Sasuke had left his canvas – adorned by a perfect still life – and was walking towards Naruto, the crowd parting for him. Naruto pouted, ignoring Sasuke who watched over his shoulder as he drew.

"Maybe you could put a background in," he suggested.

Naruto snarled. He dunked his brush into the black paint and added a wobbly stick figure into the foreground.

"You should use lighter brushstrokes…" Sasuke commented, taking the younger student's hand to guide him.

Naruto dropped the brush and swung his fist around. Sasuke slumped against the wall, holding his jaw where Naruto's punch had connected. Iruka came running over, furious. It was Naruto's first detention.

Back in the present, Naruto raised his head as his fellow students left the hall. He called to one of them, a messy-haired boy with red fangs painted on his cheeks.

"Hey, Naruto!" The boy greeted him, coming over. "You seemed pretty pissed in there. You alright?"

"Shut up, Kiba" Naruto snapped back at his friend's concern. "Help me out tonight."

"Jeez, Naruto," Kiba put his hands in his pockets and looked away. "I'd love to give you a hand but you know, I said I'd meet Tenten…"

Naruto stood quickly and grabbed the front of Kiba's coat. "I said I wanted you to help me."

"Hey, hey," Kiba raised his palms. "I told you, I'm with –"

"She's in the year above, you blockhead. Like she'll ever be interested in you!"

"Naruto, it's a date. I've been looking forward to this."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "Screw the date. Just tell her you'll do it some other time. I helped you out when you needed to bunk history last week, remember?"

"Sheesh, fine. I'll call her and try to reschedule. What did you want?"

"I need a lookout," Naruto said, releasing his grip.

"What for?" Kiba sighed.

Naruto leant in to whisper. "I'm going to break into the school."

"Oh, no way," Kiba stepped back. "That's way more serious than a little truancy."

"Come on, Kiba," Naruto rolled his eyes. "Remember who's been keeping quiet about you sneaking Akamaru into school?"

"Tell them all you like, Naruto," Kiba said, turning his back. "There's no way in hell I'm going to help you out on this one!"

Naruto glared after his friend's departing back. He'd get even for this betrayal, though calling his bluff and dobbing him in would be a little too mean and could spell trouble for Naruto too if Kiba spilled about his plan. Besides, squealing wasn't his style.

Kiba was too much of a coward to help him. Shikamaru would be far too lazy to lend a hand and Choji was the definition of useless. Well that meant he'd have to work without a lookout.

Hence, that night Naruto crept back into the schoolyard. In hindsight, it would probably have been a better idea to wear black rather than throw on his usual orange outfit but it was a bit late for that.

He pressed himself against the pebbledash wall, the uneven surface digging into his back. As he had hoped, the window to the boys' toilets was slightly ajar. He took up a long stick and pushed the frosted glass window open as far as it would go. The gap was still small but just large enough to wriggle through.

Naruto's landing on the other side was less than elegant; he tumbled head-first through the window, knocking his shin on the sink. Cursing under his breath, he hobbled out of the toilets and along the empty corridors to the main hall.

It was eerie being there after hours. His footsteps echoed loudly as he crossed the moonlit main hall. Sasuke's painting was directly in front of him, framed by its red velvet curtains. Despite himself, Naruto glanced back over his shoulder to make sure no one was watching.

He was alone.

The work of the person he hated so much stood in front of him. Iruka had said it contained his heart and soul. An evil smirk grew on Naruto's face as he realised he'd be destroying Sasuke's soul.

He drew back his arm like that day he had met his nemesis. He was going to drive his fist right through that canvas.

He would break Sasuke's heart.


	2. Itachi

Naruto threw the punch at the painting, the sensation of stretching muscles evoking the memories of the only time he had been able to land a hit on his rival. This feeling, destroying the painting, was every bit as wonderful as punching Sasuke himself.

Except this time, the painting refused to be destroyed. Instead of the impact against the canvas, Naruto felt nothing, as if his fist was still powering through the air. Where he expected to hear tearing, the distant crashing of waves came to his ears. And though his feet were firmly on the ground, it was as if the floor had fallen away.

The painting rushed forwards – or was he flying towards it? Either way, the canvas was so close he could smell the paint and his head kept moving forward at an impossible speed, followed by his body, right through the matt surface.

He was floating in the blackness. This wasn't the sort of black you would find at night, among shadows or even in the deepest reaches of space. This black was thick, like oil paint.

Every few moments, a red cloud, outlined in startling white, would drift past, sometimes coming within touching distance of Naruto before moving off into the darkness.

Unable to see any end to the strange paint-like place, Naruto tried swimming forward, kicking out with his legs and pulling at the darkness with his arms. He managed a few strokes, which might have taken him anywhere from a few metres to a few kilometres, before he felt something tugging at him.

Gravity. It pulled him as if he were heading downhill, lying on a skateboard (which he had tried once when he was younger, resulting in numerous cuts and bruises). The strength of the force grew stronger, pressing against his chest and throwing around the contents of his stomach. The red clouds whizzed past with increasing frequency, shooting upwards.

He was falling. Naruto didn't want to fall; at some stage falling has to stop and considering his speed, stopping wouldn't be a pleasant experience. Desperately he scrabbled at the black, scooping handfuls of paint in his hands. It was useless though.

All around, the black was changing, going through different shades until it morphed into a dark blue. Below, hints of white marked the tips of teal waves.

Naruto hit the waves with a splash, sinking deep below the surface. He struggled, finding that this strange sea, like the darkness, was thicker than water should have been. Bubbles of air escaped his lungs, slowly inching their way upwards.

He kicked with his legs and followed the bubbles, breaking the surface. The black sky with its red clouds was above him while he was alone in this stormy sea, the waves so high that it was impossible to tell if land was a few strokes away or, as he suspected, nonexistent.

A huge wave lifted him up, tossing him to the heavens. From that view point, he could make out a tiny bedraggled boat trapped in the trough of the wave, its sail torn to shreds.

He swam in the direction of the vessel, though the current dragged him away from his goal. By the time his fingers brushed the wooden side of the boat, his arms were aching from the effort.

Still the waves threatened to pull him away, but he was able to find a handhold and pull himself up, out of the water, eventually rolling over the side of the boat and landing on his back on the sodden deck.

Almost immediately, he turned over and coughed up the water he had swallowed. It didn't have the salty taste he expected from seawater but rather, a sharp muskiness like paint, which left a lingering numbness on his tongue.

He sat up, wiping his mouth and saw that there was another person on the boat – a young man with black hair and a ponytail was at the tiller, apparently engaged in a futile effort to steer.

A wave broke on the boat, pushing Naruto back against the single mast. The helmsman stood firm, leaning into the force of water. He appeared to notice Naruto as the excess water drained away.

"Who are you?" He shouted.

"N… Naruto," the battered blonde boy replied. He was soaked to the skin by the water which clung to him more than normal water has any right to.

"Yes," the helmsman said. "But what are you doing here? I'm always alone!"

Unsteadily, Naruto crawled across the deck to the man, clinging to the rigging for support. Up close, he could see the helmsman had dark eyes, defined by prominent ridges. His image seemed oddly familiar.

"How the heck did I get here?" Naruto asked.

"That's what I was asking you!"

"Well I don't know, do I?" He snapped. "Who are you anyway? And what is this place?"

The boat was rocked by another wave, throwing them both to the side.

"My name's Itachi," Itachi said, hugging tightly to the tiller. "And this is the Sea of Hate."

"What?!" Though Naruto had flunked geography, he was pretty sure there was no such place as 'the Sea of Hate' but that wasn't the most pressing concern at the present time. "Itachi? _You're _Uchiha Itachi?"

The man who had murdered Sasuke's entire family was here before him. He wasn't sure whether to congratulate him, berate him for not finishing the job or run away.

"I'm a representation of him, yes!" Itachi called over the roar of waves.

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?"

"The real Itachi is somewhere in hiding, beyond even the reach of the police so he could hardly be here," Itachi explained as if everything was completely and utterly normal.

"Then who are you?"

"I am Itachi. The Itachi who lives in Sasuke's heart."

Naruto stared at him as the deck lurched beneath him. He'd already narrowed the possible explanations for this situation down to the two most plausible; either he was dreaming or totally insane.

"Why would Sasuke have you in his heart? He hates you!"

Itachi rolled his eyes. "Hence me being eternally trapped in the Sea of Hate."

The Sea of Hate… did that mean that within Naruto's heart, was an identical sea with an identical boat on which Sasuke was desperately trying to steer? He smirked at the thought.

"Why are you trying to steer anyway?"

Itachi pointed straight ahead to something behind Naruto. He turned to look.

"Because of the whirlpool," Itachi stated calmly.

Naruto's immediate instinct was to try to get away from the swirling vortex of water, so large in diameter that it could have engulfed the entire school easily. However, there was no where to run to. Itachi, meanwhile, was throwing his whole weight against the tiller.

"Is that going to help?!"

Itachi shook his head. "No, it gets me every time."

"Every time?!" Naruto shouted back. "How often does this happen?"

"Over and over for all eternity. Such is the nature of hatred."

Naruto glanced around for some means of escape. This wasn't fair – he didn't want to die! How could he be sure of surviving this like Itachi apparently did each time and even if he did, how would he be able to endure this forever? His stomach clenched at the horror.

"This sea," he murmured. "This hatred. It's barbaric."

Why was Sasuke doing this to his own brother?

"Itachi!"

"What?"

"Itachi, I need you to trust me!" Naruto held out his hand.

"I don't need rescuing," Itachi assured him. "This is my fate."

Naruto growled. "Shut up! This doesn't have to be it! Sasuke will be better off not hating you!"

"You don't understand –"

"I don't care!" Naruto ran forwards, grabbed Itachi by the wrist and jumped over the side of the boat.

His feet sunk into the water up to his knees but he kept moving, not letting the rest of his body sink under. He pulled Itachi along, not giving him a choice. No one was dying this time around.

Grateful for the painted sea's high viscosity, Naruto half-swam, half-squelched away from the whirlpool. It seemed to get easier as he went, as if the paint were drying beneath him. Eventually, he was able to walk on the surface, the water only a little boggy under the soles of his shoes.

"The Sea of Hate…" Itachi said in wonderment. "It's dried up… how…?"

He turned to look at Naruto. Very gradually, he began to grin, something like a madman. Naruto took a few steps back but was unable to dodge the arms that Itachi threw around him, pulling him into a hug.

"So it's true," Itachi said, letting go of his saviour. "A single act of compassion can destroy hate…" He glanced over his shoulder. "Naruto, I need to go but remember; there is a place in this heart for you."

Before Naruto could respond, Itachi stepped away from him and faded like an aging painting until he was indistinguishable from his surroundings.

* * *

**Author's note: **if you were wondering how I know what paint tastes like, well I just tried some. It was actually quite nice, if a little tangy… I'm hoping it's not toxic. Anyway, I think I'm going to have to apologise for the sickly-sweet ending there – it just kind of happened. I blame it on being high on paint.


	3. Deidara

"Hey!" Naruto shouted at the spot where Itachi had been. "Don't leave me here!"

There was no response; he was already gone.

Naruto looked around at his surroundings. The sea had dried hard by now; the footprints where he had walked before were left indented into the frozen waves like footprints on a moonscape. Unfortunately, there was no land in sight and no landmarks save for the static whirlpool in the distance.

"Damn," he muttered, sitting down on the painted water to try to come up with a plan of what to do next. How had he come to be here anyway? The last thing that had happened was him punching Sasuke's painting and his hand going right through – presumably he had fallen _into _the painting.

Not that that was possible in any way. There must be a more logical explanation but he'd just have to work at that. For now, he was trapped in this place wherever it was… Itachi had said something about Sasuke's heart.

Speaking of which, hadn't Iruka said about Sasuke putting his heart and soul into the painting?

Naruto was jolted out of his thoughts by a sudden streak of white which ran across the sea. Moments later, a second line appeared, followed by another in the opposite direction.

From where he stood, it looked as if the lines had been applied with a brush.

There was nothing for a few minutes until, quite suddenly, a huge swathe of sea and sky disappeared under a strip of white almost a kilometre across.

A few successive strokes followed and he was left standing in a completely white environment. Though he could feel solid ground beneath his feet, there was no indication of proportion – no walls or ceiling, just white.

While he stood there, narrow, grainy lines began spread out from under his feet, forming a rectangle beneath him. More lines were added, forming squiggly shapes behind him and a triangle in front, widening as it got further away.

He decided to move before anything else happened. Already, a wash of blue had materialised between the squiggly bits and he wasn't going to hang around for any more weird stuff to happen.

However, a few steps from the rectangle, he found that he could go no further, as if there were some sort of invisible wall blocking his path. He banged his fist against it but to no avail; the wall would not yield.

The ground beneath his feet had turned green, as had the squiggles. The triangle meanwhile, was a light shade of blue and the rectangle was now arched and coloured a reddish-brown colour.

Gradually, more shades of green were applied, each new colour differing slightly from the last; short flicks of lighter and darker tones under his shoes and dappled patterns on the squiggled shapes.

He walked back to the position he had started, noticing that now his footsteps clunked with an echoing sound like walking on wood. Stopping at the centre of the rectangle, he cupped his hands to his mouth.

"Oi!" He called, not sure quite what to say in this situation. "Let me out of here!"

No new colours appeared for a while. It may have been his imagination but Naruto could have sworn that something moved in front of him, beyond the blue triangle.

A giant's face appeared, one eye obscured by long blonde hair. The one visible blue eye blinked. "What's this? A tiny little man in my painting, un?"

The face withdrew a fraction and a large black stick with a rounded end came towards Naruto. It appeared to be a huge paintbrush, held by the blonde artist at the other end. Somewhat warily, Naruto threw his arms around the brush, slipping slightly on the glossy surface, and climbed onto it.

The brush moved under him and he fell onto soft green grass. The scene about him hadn't changed except for being finished – a gentle river sparkled as it flowed its way beneath a wooden bridge which was framed by the foliage from the trees and bushes around it.

Beside Naruto, the artist, who was thankfully now a normal size, had returned to his work on his canvas which was propped up on a professional easel.

"So, tiny little man," the artist said, flicking his blonde hair. "What do you think of it so far? Is it good, un?

Now that he wasn't inside the painting, Naruto had to admit the artist was quite skilled – certainly able to rival Sasuke's talents.

"It's good," he said having failed to word any more eloquent compliments. "But my name's Naruto, not 'tiny little man'."

"My apologies," the man spun and brushed some blue paint onto Naruto's nose. "My name's Deidara but you may call me the Master of Art!"

"Isn't that a little boastful?" Naruto asked, trying to clean his nose.

"No." Deidara said. He reached into the small bag at his waist and pulled out a framed certificate that was far too large to have fitted in there. He held it up for Naruto to look at. "See? I have a master's degree in fine art. Therefore, I'm the Master of Art, un."

"Um… I'm sure there are other people with the same degree," Naruto pointed out. "So you can't really call yourself _the _Master of Art."

"If you can find another person with this degree, I'll be impressed," Deidara smirked and applied another stroke of paint to Naruto, this time a spot of yellow in the centre of his forehead.

"Stop that!" Naruto batted the brush away, getting paint on his hand in the process.

"Fine, fine." Deidara folded his arms. "You're boring, un."

"I don't care," Naruto said with a slight pout. "So, am I still in Sasuke's heart or soul or whatever?"

"How should I know?" Deidara gave him a slightly offended look. "I am nought but a lowly artist – not a theologian, un."

"Lowly?" Naruto raised his eyebrows. "I thought you were the best artist in the world a minute ago."

"Well yes," Deidara assented. "Actually, do you think you could tell my rival that? He keeps claiming that his art is – how does he put it? – 'superior' to mine. I mean honestly, who does he think he is, un?"

"You have a rival?"

"Yes, he calls himself 'Sasori of the Red Sand'," he sneered. "How conceited can you get, applying titles to yourself?"

"Didn't you just do that with your 'Master of Art'?"

"No." It was Deidara's turn to pout this time. "That title was conferred upon me by the dean of the University of Rock, un."

Naruto contemplated the sentence. "You know, I'm not even going to say anything…"

"What? It's a perfectly valid university!"

"'The University of _Rock_'?" Naruto repeated. "Is that rock 'n' roll or do you have to go somewhere else for the roll part?"

"Oh I see!" Deidara turned his back. "Another dissenter! Maybe you should just go buddy up to Sasori, why don't you? Though I warn you, that guy's pretty needy."

"Yeah, see that's the point I was getting to…"

"What was?"

"That maybe… well…" Naruto paused, not entirely sure why he was even saying this. "I've seen what hate does and well; couldn't you just be friendly rivals?"

"_Friendly _rivals?" Deidara's brow creased at the entirely alien suggestion. "Whoever heard of a friendly rival? What would you do, discuss art over tea and scones, un?"

"Well, ideally, yes," Naruto admitted.

Deidara stared at him for a few moments, pursing his lips. After careful deliberation, he appeared to come to a conclusion, his eyes brightening.

"Thanks for the advice, un," he grinned.

"No problem," Naruto replied slightly awkwardly. Deidara dipped his brush in red paint and drew a line right down the middle of Naruto's face.

"What was that for?!"

Deidara shrugged. "It was a thank you." He bundled up his easel and brushes and ran off over the bridge into the bushes, leaving Naruto to try to wash the paint off in the river. If this was Sasuke's heart, he'd hate to see how messed up it was in his head.

* * *

**Author's note: **the good news is that I survived eating paint with no ill effects. Actually, I'm kind of peckish now… *looks around for paint* Anyway, this story seems to be getting progressively surreal but that's the way I like it. I'm intending, if you hadn't guessed, to go through each of the Akatsuki characters in turn so if you have one you want me to do next, mention it in your review. Which of course you'll be writing - hint, hint.


	4. Konan

The water was cool but refreshing as Naruto splashed it across his face, the bright colours Deidara had attacked him with mixing with the running water and trickling off downstream. He sat back on his heels and licked his lips.

There was still a distinctly paint-like taste to everything here just like before but now it seemed water-downed. Naruto remembered Deidara's painting – hadn't he been using watercolour?

Now that he was alone, the scene had taken on a peaceful quality; he listened to the twitter of birds and the gentle rush of wind running between the individual blades of grass. Somehow, wherever he was, it had acquired some beauty that surpassed anything in reality.

Something caught his eye; a blue flower floating under the bridge. As it meandered across the ripples, Naruto reached forward and fished it out the water.

On closer inspection, it was apparent that the flower was not a natural bloom but rather, constructed of paper. He held it up to his eyes and turned it over in his hands. The design was far more complex than the cranes that the geeky kids at school made and those were pretty darn hard to do.

Naruto turned at the sound of someone skipping lightly over the bridge. A young blue-haired woman in a red, hooded cloak holding a wicker basket crossed the bridge with a blissful expression on her face. She stopped when she saw Naruto.

Seeing that she had an identical origami flower pinned in her hair, Naruto held out the one he had found. She took it from him with a smile.

"Thanks, I thought I'd lost one." She opened up the basket she carried and popped the flower in with a multitude of different coloured ones. "I'm Konan by the way."

"Oh, my name's Naruto." He tried to stifle a snigger. So Sasuke _did _think about beautiful women sometimes.

"What's funny?" she frowned.

"Nothing. Where are you going with all those flowers?"

"I'm going to see my granny," she said smugly. "She lives really far away in the woods."

"And she likes origami, does she?"

"What?" She looked puzzled. "Oh no! These are for the birds."

"Birds? What birds?" Naruto had heard birdsong before but what would a bird want with origami flowers?

There was a sudden rustle of paper as a huge bird landed on his shoulder. It gave him a beady-eyed look, exposing the fact that it was practically two-dimensional and apparently constructed of folded paper.

Konan placed one of the flowers on the palm of her hand and proffered it to the bird. With a squawk, it ducked its beak and gobbled up the gift.

"What the…?" Naruto began. A couple of shreds of paper fluttered down from the bird and came to rest on his shoulder. "Did that bird just poop on me?"

Konan giggled and the bird took flight, spreading its magnificent paper wings and whacking Naruto's head with them in the process.

"Ow," Naruto complained, rubbing his ear. "I think I got a paper cut."

Leaning forward, Konan pulled his hand away and kissed the top of his ear where he'd been cut. Naruto blushed.

"Anyway, see you," she gave him a wave and walked off, bumping his shoulder very slightly as she passed him.

Naruto didn't move for several seconds. Technically, that had been his first kiss, assuming ear-kisses counted. He felt his face grow even hotter.

Wait… if she was in Sasuke's soul and therefore a product of his inner self so was that a kiss from Sasuke? No way! This was not happening! Naruto shook his head furiously.

He ran to catch up with Konan.

"Hey wait!" He called.

"Yes, Naruto-kun." His heart took a slight dip on hearing the suffix.

"Um, well," he poked his fingers together nervously. "I was just wondering, are you part of Sasuke's psyche or something?"

"Of course," she grinned.

"Oh… I… but… well…" Naruto stumbled for words.

"Wait…" she narrowed her eyes. "You're not the Big Bad Wolf, are you?"

"What? Me? No," Naruto blinked in surprise.

"Are you sure," she glared.

"Of course I'm sure. What makes you say that?"

She pointed to his face. "You have whiskers."

"Uh yeah," he rubbed his head. "I'm not sure about why I have those myself, you know… Hang on, do wolves even have whiskers?"

"I knew it!" She shouted, jumping backwards. "You are the Wolf!"

"How did you get to that conclusion?!"

She held up an accusing finger. "Only the Wolf would think to ask whether he had whiskers."

Naruto considered the point and compared it to her revelation. They just wouldn't go together. "Um, that doesn't make sense."

"Sure it does. Everyone else would be able to see if he had whiskers, except for the wolf who can't see his own face!"

"Sorry," Naruto said. "It still doesn't make much sense to me. Wouldn't he be able to look down his nose or at other wolves or in the mirror?"

"Aha! Exactly what the Wolf would say," Konan cheered triumphantly.

"Fine," Naruto gave her a disparaging look. "Let's say I was a wolf –"

"Not _a _wolf," she interrupted. "_The _Wolf."

"Okay, _the _wolf –"

"With a capital W."

"Yes, alright! Wolf, Wolf, Wolf. Happy?" he rolled his eyes. "Would you let me finish now?"

"Sure," she gave an angelic smile.

"Right, well, if I was the Wolf, why wouldn't I just eat you?"

"Simple," she answered. "You're going to appear charming so you can find out where my granny is and then run ahead, eat her up and disguise yourself as her so I suspect nothing until you eat me too."

Naruto blinked again. "You have one highly over-active imagination."

"It's possible," she pouted.

"Sure, but wouldn't you notice it was the Wolf, not your granny?"

She stared at him, her eyes glistening. A single tear ran down her cheek and it was quickly followed by more.

"Wait, wait," Naruto said, trying to calm her down. "Don't cry."

The basket fell to the ground, scattering origami flowers everywhere. Konan dropped to her knees, covering her eyes with her hands, her body shaking with huge sobs.

Naruto put an arm around her. "What's wrong?"

"I'm… I… can't see…" she cried.

"What? Not at all?"

She leant her head into his chest, the tears flowing fast. "Everything's a blur."

"Then how could you tell I had whiskers?"

"I… I took a look when I kissed your ear."

"Oh, right." Naruto frowned; had the kiss meant nothing at all to her then? "Why don't you wear glasses?"

"They make me look ugly!" She wailed.

Damn. Fashion advice; Naruto's worst subject. Well, other than maths. Or science. Or… well, okay, so there were a lot of subjects he wasn't good at but fashion was high on the list.

Nevertheless, he had overheard a little tip Ino had given Sakura ages back about her large forehead… maybe that would help.

"Why don't you get a pair of glasses that are really obvious?"

"Huh?" She gave him a confused, red-eyed look. "That would just make it worse."

"No it wouldn't," he told her with more confidence than he felt in his proposal. "Make them a feature and be proud of them."

"But… but… I'd still be ugly…"

Naruto shook his head. "I don't think anyone could call you ugly. Frankly, you're the best looking woman I've seen. Kind of like an angel."

"You… you really think so?" She rubbed her eyes.

Naruto nodded. "Nothing could make you less beautiful."

She reached out for a flower and blew her nose on it. "Thanks, I'll try it. Would you mind taking these to granny?"

"Sure," Naruto smiled. She gave him a watery grin in return and ran off, tripping slightly on the bridge as she went.

As he gathered up the flowers, Naruto couldn't help but think about Sasuke. Did he secretly need glasses like Konan? Was his solitary attitude just his way of protecting himself from the judgement of everyone around him?

More to the point, what was wrong with Naruto? Feeling sympathy for his rival. He shook his head. What was he thinking?


	5. Sasori

**Author's note: **slight spoilers for non-manga readers here but nothing too major.

* * *

Naruto carefully placed the last flower in the basket and set off in the direction Konan had been heading. The path took him through quiet woodland where the light was scattered by the leaves.

As he walked on, he found patches of forest that were painted very roughly, sometimes in single shades of colours and every so often, he'd find a couple of trees that had only been sketched lightly in pencil.

One of the paper birds landed on a branch above him and Naruto, copying what Konan had done, offered it a flower from the basket. The bird picked it up with its beak, threw it into the air and swallowed it whole as it fell back down.

He fed several more birds along the way, all the time wondering how far it was to wherever Konan's granny lived. Eventually he came to a fork in the path.

Naruto muttered a swearword under his breath. Both paths looked identical and neither yielded any hints to habitation. Which one was he supposed to take?

"The right one." It took Naruto a few moments to identify the source of the voice until he noticed the huge venus flytrap between the two forks. Its mouth-like appendages split slightly, revealing a face between them, one side black and the other side white.

"Don't listen to him," the plant-thing growled in a deeper voice than before. "It's the left one you want."

Naruto looked to the left fork where a sign-post had appeared. He read it and frowned.

"The Bottomless Pit of Doom?" Naruto raised his eyebrows.

"Yes… that's right," the plant said shiftily.

"Pay no attention to the black half," the lighter voice laughed. "He likes to lure people places."

The appendages snapped closed, making Naruto jump. He heard muffled arguing from within.

"Shut up! Do you want to eat tonight or not?"

"Hey, but he's so cute. Can't we just let him go?"

"You say that about everyone, idiot!"

Carefully, while the plant was occupied, Naruto slipped off down the right-hand fork. It wasn't long before he came across two people walking hand in hand, surrounded by a multitude of animals. Some were normal creatures like dogs and cats but Naruto could also see a panda, a rhino and even a giant crab among them.

"Um, hey," he said, somewhat nervously.

The girl, who had bright orange hair, screamed, ran forward and hugged him.

"Oh my gosh!" She shouted in Naruto's ear. "Look, it's someone new! Can we keep him?"

The man cleared his throat. Like his partner, he had orange hair in a long pony-tail down to his waist. "You've already got the snake-tailed chameleon," he reminded her. "Why do you need that thing?"

"Oh but look!" She spun round behind Naruto and pinched his cheeks. "He has cute little whiskery-things! Please can I have him?"

"Hey," Naruto ducked away from the girl's grip. "I'm not a pet! I'm looking for someone."

"Oh," the girl blushed. Naruto noticed that her eyes, like the man's, were constructed of concentric circles. "Sorry about that. Who were you looking for?"

"Konan's granny. Maybe you know her?"

The girl pursed her lips. "No, I don't think I do…"

"Does Konan even have a granny?" the man asked.

"I don't know," the girl shrugged. "You should try in the Village of the Six Paths anyway – it's just along that way."

Naruto thanked them and continued in the direction they had pointed. The trees hardly thinned at all before he stepped straight from woodland onto a cobbled street. A square-jawed man with the same orange hair and strange eyes as the two in the forest hobbled past, giving Naruto a dark look.

The village wasn't particularly large; in fact, it could hardly be called a village. The settlement consisted of eight-or-so thatched houses gathered around a cobbled square and surrounded on all sides by forest as if a tiny segment of a village had been dropped into the wild.

An upper-story window opened and a bald man with a neck wider than his head leaned out with a huge grin. He followed Naruto with his gaze, giving him a severe case of the creeps.

In the middle of the square was someone curled up, apparently crying. His hair wasn't merely orange but actually brick-red. Naruto, reasoning that he'd get fewer looks if he was with someone else, made his way over to the figure and crouched down beside him.

"Are you alright?"

The man looked up at him, completely dry-eyed. "What does it look like?"

"But you're… you're not actually crying," Naruto observed.

"Oh I see!" The man burst into noisy fake tears. "Just because I'm wooden, I'm not allowed to cry! Only people with tear ducts are allowed to be upset, is that it?"

"No, no," Naruto said hurriedly. Looking closer, it was evident that the man really was made out of wood. "That's not what I meant at all. Why are you upset?"

"Because of Deidara!" the wooden man wailed. "He said he wanted to be friendly rivals!"

"Well that's good, isn't it?" Naruto asked, the clenching in his stomach telling him that he might have made a mistake.

"I… I believed him and showed him my new kazekage puppet… and… and he broke it!"

Naruto ran a hand through his hair. A large part of this had to be his fault.

"You're Sasori, right?"

Sasori gave a weak little nod.

"Alright, stay there," Naruto told him, not waiting for an answer before running off. A tall man with, as Naruto would have guessed by now, long orange hair, stepped out of one of the doorways. Naruto called to him as he closed his door.

"Have you see Deidara around?" Naruto asked.

"Sure," the man pointed to a path leading around one of the houses. "He's behind Preta's house."

Naruto waved a hand in thanks and dashed around the back of the building he had indicated. There he found Deidara, sitting under the windowsill, a black-haired wooden head in his lap. Naruto put his hands on his hips.

"I thought you were going to be nice to Sasori," he said sternly.

Deidara looked up at him. "I tried, I really did but he just doesn't understand art, un."

Naruto tutted, grabbed Deidara by the wrist and dragged him out into the main square. Sasori shrunk away as they approached but Naruto motioned to him to stay where he was.

"Right," he said, letting go of Deidara. "You two are going to stay here and settle your differences once and for all."

"You mean I get to fight him, un?" Deidara asked.

"No, you talk like adults!" Naruto slapped him on the back of the head. "First though, you owe Sasori an apology."

"Oh, right." Deidara held out the puppet's head.

"Kaze!" Sasori shouted and hugged the head to his chest.

"Listen, Sas," Deidara said, looking at his feet. "I didn't mean to damage your puppet… I was just annoyed, so I'm… well, I'm sorry, un."

"Good," Naruto prompted him. "Why were you annoyed?"

"I guess," Deidara fiddled with his ponytail. "Well, I like your art, Sasori, un."

"You do?" the puppeteer looked up in surprise.

"Yes… I don't really understand it but the workmanship on your puppets is quite something and the brushwork – well I've never seen anything like it," he said, meeting Sasori's eyes as his confidence grew. "And I was jealous and nervous of you and… can you forgive me, un?"

Sasori smiled at him, his eyes twinkling. A light breeze ruffled his red hair. "Of course I forgive you, Dei!" He jumped up and hugged his erstwhile rival.

Naruto felt a tap on his shoulder; he turned to find a rotund man with an orange ponytail carrying a tray of scones, clotted cream and jam.

"I couldn't help over-hearing," he explained. "And I thought you gentlemen might like something to eat."

"Food!" Deidara shouted and grabbed two scones. He bit into both, cream and jam dribbling down his front. "Hey Sas," he mumbled, spraying everyone with crumbs. "How'd you like to pose for one of my paintings, un?"

"I'd love to! What do I have to do?"

"Well first," Deidara said. "You're going to need to take off those clothes…"

Naruto couldn't help but chuckle to himself as he took a bite out of his scone. Some rivals they turned out to be.

"That was very noble of you, Naruto," another orange-haired man said. He held out his hand to shake and Naruto wiped his palm on his trousers before doing so. "My name's Deva but you may call me Yahiko."

"Oh, hi," Naruto said. "But I was just doing, you know, the right thing."

"And for some, the right thing is harder to do than for others," Yahiko said solemnly before grinning. "Which is why it should be rewarded accordingly. I know where you are heading; allow me to guide you there."


	6. Kakuzu

Naruto followed his red-headed guide through the forest and out into a wide meadow whose long grasses sheltered an amazing array of flowers in delicate pastel shades. He was still carrying the wicker basket of origami flowers to give to Konan's granny whenever he got there.

"Hey, Yahiko," Naruto called, pushing between the grass stems. "How far did you say this place was?"

He shrugged. "You can never tell; it moves around quite a lot, you see."

"Fantastic," Naruto rolled his eyes. "So are we just going to wonder around until we find it then?"

Yahiko stopped suddenly and Naruto almost tripped over in his effort not to walk into him.

"What did you stop for?" Naruto asked before hearing a faint rumbling noise getting closer. Yahiko sighed and placed his hands on his hips. The rumbling seemed to be coming from below and was rising upwards towards them at a rapid pace.

"Uh, Yahiko… shouldn't we move?" The sound was almost upon them, getting louder. To Naruto, it sounded like some sort of giant mole.

The grass trembled around them. Clods of earth danced around Yahiko's feet in their hurry to escape.

The ground parted as the rumbling reached its peak and a pair of huge Venus fly-trap shaped leaves rose in front of them.

"We should go," Naruto warned his companion. "I've met this guy before and…"

The leaves split open, revealing the half-black, half-white face nestled inside the monstrous plant.

"Hey Zetsu," Yahiko waved happily.

"Hey, how's it going?" Zetsu replied in his lighter voice.

"Not bad, not bad," Yahiko grinned. "You seen the cottage recently?"

"Yeah," Zetsu rumbled in the dark voice. "It went that way."

Yahiko glanced in the direction Zetsu had nodded to, where a conspicuous signpost had popped up out of the ground.

"Still the old bottomless pit trick, eh?" Yahiko playfully punched Zetsu on the shoulder and turned to Naruto. "Zetsu's got a bit of a split-personality – you can trust the white side but the black side will try to eat you."

"If that's a bit of a split personality," Naruto grumbled. "I'd hate to see what you call a full one."

"You know, Yahiko," the black side smirked. "We could do a little trade here. The real location of the cottage… in return for that kid."

"No deal, I'm afraid," Yahiko casually turned down the offer.

"Well if you change your mind, you know where you can find me," he licked his lips. "That boy sure looks juicy and tender…"

With a sort of backwards rumbling, Zetsu descended back into the ground, not leaving a single trace of his presence. Naruto felt a shiver slide down his spine; would that thing really try to eat him?

"Come on," Yahiko said, setting off at a brisk walk in the opposite direction to the bottomless pit.

"If it's bottomless," Naruto pondered. "How would he be able to eat anyone that fell down it?"

Yahiko shrugged. "I've no idea but somehow I doubt he'll ever manage to lure anyone down that thing."

"Then why does he keep trying?"

"He's Zetsu; that's what he does." Yahiko stopped again and this time Naruto did collide with him. "We're here."

Naruto peered around him, his eyes widening at the sight of the largest fairground he had ever seen, spread out before him. A part of him pointed out that he should have noticed it as soon as he entered the flat meadow but he had spent long enough in this world to understand that it was healthier to ignore whatever that part of his brain said.

"This is where Konan's granny lives?" It had to be one strange granny to live in this place; it seemed as though every possible attraction was in this place, from the Ferris wheel and carousel to the towering helter-skelter and candy-floss stall. The only thing missing was the visitors; the entire fairground appeared deserted.

"Nah," Yahiko shook his head. "Not here. You'll need to get to the highest point at the top of that helter-skelter."

Naruto gaped at the giant wooden red and white tower. He had never been afraid of heights but that thing went all the way into the clouds.

"Good luck," Yahiko patted him on the head and walked off.

"Oi, don't leave me here!" Naruto shouted after his back. There was a tap on his shoulder. He turned but there was no one there.

"Hello?" A thick mist had descended on the funfair. The painted clown over the entrance glared down at him with a look of wide-eyed evil.

Naruto noticed a thread lying by his feet; it stretched off in a winding path into the fair itself. He swallowed and stepped forward, following it along the ground, through the gate and onto the merry-go-round where it was wrapped around a unicorn's horn and ended in a huge pile just behind a pink horse.

He was about to poke the heap of thread when it moved suddenly and changed into the form of a man wearing a top hat which seemed to be stitched to his forehead. In fact, all his limbs seemed to be sewn onto his body as well.

Naruto took a few steps back as the man donned a bright red jacket.

"Roll up, roll up," he called in a sonorous voice as if Naruto were a crowd of people and not just one. "Welcome to the magnificent, marvellous, Mr. Kakuzu's funfair!"

"Uh… could I go on the helter-skelter?" Naruto asked him.

"Of course," Kakuzu said, putting an arm around his shoulders. He didn't actually move – the arm detached itself and went to Naruto of its own accord, only attached to its owner by the thin black threads. "But first you must enjoy all the other rides!"

Naruto looked around in horror at the vast amount of attractions. "How about if I come back to them later?"

Kakuzu shook his head as his other hand leapt over to a nearby piano and struck a chord.

"Now how about that," he began singing, distinctly out of tune. The arm that was around Naruto went to join the hand and together they began playing a bouncy tune, made slightly sinister by the piano's need of attention.

"You came all the way to the fair/ But you only say flat/ There's just one ride for which you care!"

"Uh that's right," Naruto tried to interrupt him.

"Ah, but you see," Kakuzu returned to his normal voice while the hands played discordant backing chords. "I'm an artist."

"A musician?" Naruto raised his eyebrow; surely this guy knew he couldn't sing?

"Oh no, my friend," Kakuzu grinned, nodding to his hands. "Take it away, boys!"

The piano strained against the enthusiasms of Kakuzu's fingers as they spun across the keys, playing a caterwauling tune. One of his feet hopped off to work the pedals.

"Money, is what I make/ Yes, money; that's me/ Money, money, money!" He pulled a wad of cash from his sleeve like a magician might flourish a bunch of flowers. "None of it's fake/ And none of it's free/ 'Cause money makes the world go 'round/ Ryu, dollar or pound/ I'll take it all!"

Naruto cleared his throat and clapped when he was sure Kakuzu had finished.

"Thank you," Kakuzu bowed as his limbs returned to him. "Now, if you'd like to start on the pirate ship just over here."

"Wait," Naruto stopped short of touching him. "It's really important that I go to the top of the helter-skelter."

"And I'm saying I can't allow you." Kakuzu waved his finger in front of Naruto's face. "Oops…" He bent down to pick up the hand he had dropped.

"You like money, right?" Naruto asked, a plan forming in his mind.

"How did you know?" Kakuzu asked without a hint of sarcasm.

"Lucky guess," Naruto grinned. "Well it just so happens that I have a very rare and valuable currency with me so maybe you could just let me go on the helter-skelter?"

"Nothing doing!" Kakuzu crossed his arms, though Naruto suspected it was more to hide the fact that some of the stitching was coming loose than anything else. "When you own a funfair, you can do what you like."

Naruto frowned; this guy really wasn't budging. "Well, in that case… I think I have enough to buy this place off you."

"Really?" Kakuzu's eyes opened wide; one fell out of its socket and dangled by a length of nerve fibres. "Let's see this coinage then."

Hesitantly, Naruto held out one of the origami flowers for him to inspect.

"How much did you say this thing's worth?" Kakuzu asked, holding his eyeball up to it.

"Uh… about three million pounds," Naruto lied.

"Hmm…" Kakuzu drummed his fingers on his chin as if deep in thought. "It'll take about four of them."

"I'll give you two," Naruto bartered. Even if they were only made of paper, he wasn't paying the equivalent of twelve million pounds for a fairground!

"Make it three and you've got a deal!"

"Done!" Naruto handed over the three flowers and Kakuzu happily skipped off out of the gate with his right arm trailing along behind him.

Naruto looked up at the helter-skelter, the top of which was masked by the clouds. It looked like he had a lot of stairs to climb.


	7. Nagato

Naruto stopped to rest on the wooden stairs. It seemed like he had been climbing for an age, going round and round in a twisting spiral skywards. Every now and then he'd pass a little window through which he could see the fairground growing smaller and smaller.

He had stopped by one such window and found he could see right out across the world he was in. The land formed a sort of cloud-shaped island, surrounded by the bluish-grey of the Sea of Hate with its whirlpool still frozen. Much of the island was densely forested but he could see Deidara's bridge in the far distance and the Village of the Six Paths closer to where he was. The side of the island he hadn't explored was mostly made up of dark mountains which he was desperately hoping he wouldn't have to visit.

Konan's Granny's house was no where to be seen.

"Excuse me…"

Naruto yelped in surprise, almost falling down the stairs as Kakuzu's head landed on the windowsill, trailing its black thread.

"These flowers… are they really currency?" The head asked.

"Uh… yeah…" Naruto backed away, surreptitiously climbing further up the stairs.

"Where are they valid?" Kakuzu's eyes narrowed.

"Um… that… flower… place," Naruto floundered, cursing his lack of imagination.

"Amsterdam, you mean?"

"Sure, let's go with that," Naruto grinned. "Excuse me, I have to go…"

"See, I was under the impression that the currency in the Netherlands was the euro," Kakuzu murmured. "And my lawyer seems to think that you may have lied to me."

"Me, lie? Can't you trust an old friend?" Naruto gave him an adorable wide-eyed expression.

Kakuzu thought about it. "No, I can't say I can. I tend to tear old friends' heads off when they trick me."

"Uh… well… look over there!" Kakuzu glanced in the direction Naruto had pointed, allowing him to kick the head out of the window and make a run for it.

Naruto scrambled up the stairs, his feet slipping on the wood as he ran. Kakuzu gave a muffled shout from below. There were clomping footsteps at the base of the structure; heavy footfalls but moving fast towards him.

He dashed onwards, holding the basket of paper flowers tight, his shoulders slamming against the walls as he made every tight corner.

The air temperature plummeted and the spirals of the staircase became tighter, the steps narrower. Kakuzu was almost directly below him now; as he rounded a corner, Naruto caught a glimpse of his wrinkled hand flashing to the rail.

There was fresh air ahead. Naruto saw a door at the top of the stairs; he pushed it open as something caught his ankle, causing him to fall.

He crashed through the door, landing on the top of the helter-skelter. The wicker basket smashed, spilling its contents over the wooden boards.

Naruto struggled to disentangle himself from the thread as Kakuzu approached. He got to his feet and pressed himself against the railing that ringed the top of the structure.

From here, the only way down was the slide that ran around the tower. Not that he wanted to get down; Yahiko had said he needed to climb this tower. It must have been to get a vantage point to see the entire island but earlier he hadn't been able to make out the cottage he was heading for and now the land was masked by cloud cover.

"Listen," he said, holding up his palms to Kakuzu. "This has all been a misunderstanding…"

"Correct," Kakuzu smirked. "And now you're going to misunderstand the fact that you can't survive falling from this height!"

Naruto paused, trying to comprehend Kakuzu's meaning. "That's a threat, right?"

He didn't manage to hear the answer though because something slammed straight into him and sent him tumbling over the edge.

Naruto opened his eyes when he realised he wasn't falling so much as flying. Water splattered him as he zoomed through a cloud and he gripped tighter to whatever he was sitting on.

What he was sitting on appeared to be the largest paper bird he had met yet. It was chewing on one of the flowers he had dropped.

"T-thanks boy," he muttered, patting the bird on the head.

"I'm a _girl_!" the bird squawked indignantly.

"Oh right…"

She twisted, wheeling around to face the top of the helter-skelter where Kakuzu was stomping on the ground, literally red with fury. Naruto clung on desperately as the bird dived towards the tower, another flower in her sights.

They narrowly avoided hitting the railings as the bird scooper another flower into her mouth. As they passed, Naruto threw a kick at the furious Kakuzu who fell backwards, landing on a mat which took him hurtling off head-first down the slide.

Naruto laughed as he watched the businessman zoom away. The bird flapped on upwards.

"So, where you want me to put you down?" She asked.

"Could you take me to Konan's Granny's house?" Naruto asked tentatively.

"Sure," the bird squawked, soaring off over the cotton-wool clouds. "You can call me Bird, by the way."

"Thanks Bird. How far is it?"

"Just here," she replied, alighting on the roof of a little cottage built on top of the clouds. It looked like it was Santa's cabin in the snow, though Naruto was careful not to tread on this 'snow' as he shimmed down the drainpipe and stepped across onto the doorstep. Clouds, he reasoned, don't hold people's weight very well… though of course they shouldn't hold a cottage's weight either.

He knocked on the door and it was immediately opened by Konan wearing designer glasses.

"Oh hi!" She smiled. "It's Naruto-kun, isn't it? What are you doing here?"

Naruto stared at her. There was a squawk from Bird as she took off.

"You told me to come here, remember?" Naruto reminded her.

"Did I? Dear me, I must have forgotten. Did you fly here on Bird?" She asked pleasantly.

"Yeah…How did you know she was called Bird?"

"You silly thing!" Konan ruffled his hair. "They're all called Bird."

"Who is it?" A croaky voice called from inside.

"Oh, you must meet Granny," Konan grinned, pulling Naruto inside the homely little cottage. The grey-stone walls were hung with framed charcoal sketches, mostly portraits, though a few were landscapes, each signed with the name Nagato.

He didn't have long to inspect them though because he was quickly introduced to the Granny curled up in an armchair by the fireplace, next to a table laid out with tea and biscuits.

Naruto leaned over to Konan. "That's your Granny?" he whispered.

"Yeah," Konan blushed and rubbed the back of her neck. "Who knew I was so short-sighted, eh?"

The 'Granny' was, in fact, a gaunt man with long red hair and a ribcage that protruded through the pale skin of his bare chest. His lower body was covered by a tartan rug. He looked up from the sketch he had just started work on.

"I am Nagato. You must be Naruto," he said. "I've heard a lot about you."

"You have? But I only just got here." He glanced at Konan.

"But you have been causing stirrings in this world for many years," Nagato murmured sagely.

"This world," Naruto asked quickly, realising that this skeletal man knew more than the other people he had met. "It's Sasuke's heart, right?"

"It could be said to be an impression of his heart, yes," Nagato sighed. "However, it is no longer connected to the original… that remains inside Sasuke."

"Does he… how does he feel about me?" Naruto wondered.

"That is something you must work out for yourself." He held up the sketch he had been working on during the brief conversation. It was a perfect representation of Naruto, almost as if he were looking into a greyscale mirror.

"How did you do that?" Naruto gaped.

"It's a talent," he shrugged.

"It's amazing," Naruto complimented him while collecting a biscuit from the table. He slipped it into his mouth and munched on it. "If I wanted to get out of here," he asked, brushing the crumbs from his lips. "How would I do it?"

Nagato raised an eyebrow. "Why, through the front door, of course."

"No, no," Naruto corrected himself. "I mean out of this world. To get home."

"Oh, right." Nagato picked up a fresh piece of paper and began sketching on it with his stick of charcoal, his hand moving in flurried jumps. After a few moments, he blew away the dust and handed Naruto the drawing. It showed some sort of temple perched on a steep mountainside.

"You should go there," Nagato told him.

"Why?"

"Just a hunch."

* * *

**Author's note: **I decided to give Nagato charcoal to use because it sort of looks like his chakra stick things. I'm afraid that this will be the last update for just over a fortnight but don't worry because I'll be back soon!


	8. Kisame

Nagato smiled and snuggled back into his armchair, watching Naruto study the picture he had drawn; a partially run-down temple surrounded by the jagged peaks of unsurpassable mountains.

"Where is it?" Naruto asked.

"I'd say in all probability it was somewhere in the Western Mountains…" He said, resting his chin on his thumb and forefinger as if deep in thought.

"Which way's that?"

"East."

Naruto studied his expression for a few moments before concluding this charcoal artist was serious.

"The _Western _Mountains are _east _from here?"

"Hey don't complain to me." He held up the palms of his bony hands. "I don't make up the names of these places."

"Fine," Naruto sighed. There really was no point anymore. "So how do I get down from here?"

"Oh, don't worry about that," Konan laughed. "The clouds will carry your weight easily. No problem."

"Are you sure?" Naruto gave her a suspicious look.

"Hey, they hold this cottage up, don't they?"

Their logic was undeniable. It still didn't give Naruto any confidence.

"Won't you stay for some tea and biscuits?" Nagato asked, gesturing to the array on the coffee table beside him. "Or I can get you some fruit cake."

"Ah, no thanks." Naruto smiled, waving his hand. "I really should be on my way."

Nagato gave a gentle incline of his head and raised himself unsteadily from his chair, Konan rushing to take his arm. Awkwardly, they shook hands and Nagato shuffled to the door which he opened onto the blanket of pure white cloud.

"You're definitely sure I can walk on this stuff?"

"I already said you could, silly," Konan smirked and gave him a little push towards the doorway.

"Alright… well thanks."

He took a deep breath and put his foot out over the crowds, expecting the silky strands to support him. Unfortunately, they didn't.

As he plummeted through the dampness, Naruto could have sworn he head Konan say,

"On the other hand, I could always be mistaken…"

Yeah, thanks Konan. Not.

He found himself falling headfirst, the clouds rushing past him and shooting upwards. The blue sky streamed around him, blurred as if constructed with quick brush strokes. Far below him were the grey mountains he had seen earlier; those must be the Western Mountains in the east.

Not that it did him much good. Below was a wide, clear-blue lake, glittering, throwing up tiny shards of light that clattered against the monochrome mountains all around.

Now would be the sort of time when having origami flowers would be useful…

Origami! That was it.

Wait… while falling to near-certain death, the first plan that came into his head was origami?! Typical, the lack of oxygen must have been making him lose sense.

Still, no time to worry about that! He snatched Nagato's sketch of the temple from his inside pocket and quickly tried to transform it into some sort of flower. Before long, he was left with a screwed up piece of paper. The ground was not getting any further away.

Dammit! He threw the piece of paper away and resigned himself to a painful landing. If only he could hit the lake at the right angle. But he was going too fast!

There was a whoosh of papery wings behind him and a blue origami bird smacked into him, the ball of paper clamped in its beak.

Naruto didn't have time to think. He grabbed the bird's tail and dragged the wildly flapping creature down with him.

The lift was just enough to slow his descent and he let go with relief just above the surface of the water and plunged into its depths.

Saved by a paper bird, yet again.

He really should try to get home before he went entirely insane.

Twisting in the water, he pulled with his arms, swimming upwards towards the light. Gasping for air, he broke the surface and paddled for the rocky bank.

Just as he was about to clamber out, something caught his ankle. He scrabbled for purchase, his nails scraping against the rock but whatever had hold of him wasn't letting him go.

It pulled him backwards, back beneath the glistening surface of the water.

A dark shape circled him. It cut easily through the water, like a phantom through the air. He might have mistaken it for human if it weren't for the huge fin protruding from its back.

This thing certainly wasn't after paper flowers.

Naruto lashed out with his leg, catching the monster on its nose and sending up a spray of bubbles. He kicked out with his legs, struggling for the surface but the thing came around again, pushing him back down

His lungs were constricted and it took all of Naruto's effort not to make the fatal mistake of trying to breathe.

He was so deep that the bottom of the lake was just beneath is toes. There were some good sized rocks down there. Instead of trying to escape, he swam downwards, surprising the creature.

His hands brushed over the rocks, worn smooth from years of erosion, before closing around a particularly large specimen.

As the monster came at him again, he smacked it across the head with the rock, dazing it, and struck out once more for the surface.

There wasn't time to lie panting on the shoreline. As soon as he was out the water, he got to his feet and ran as fast as he could, slipping on the pebbles and his shoes squelching with each step.

There were footsteps behind him.

He was slow from exhaustion; flight would no longer serve him well. Naruto turned, casting around for a new weapon to use against this latest danger.

The danger in question stood a few metres away, his blue skin dripping wet. Naruto's gaze took in the sharp lines of his face, the spiked up hair and the gills as well as the plastic shark-fin strapped to his back.

"You're not a shark, are you?"

"Who me?" The shark-man asked, innocently, glancing around in case there was anyone else Naruto could have been referring too.

"Yes, you."

"Uh… no. I'm a freshwater homo sapiens."

"Right," Naruto murmured, elongating the vowel sound. "I'll have to take your word on that one."

The aquatic human flashed a sharp-toothed grin. "Would you like to be my prey?"

Naruto blinked. "Um… I'll have to pass on that one."

He gave Naruto a wide-eyed pleading look. "Please? No one ever wants to be my prey."

"Look… uh, what's your name?"

"Kisame."

"Well Kisame, I'm a little busy… I'm looking for this temple and –"

"Pfft!" Kisame's demeanour changed instantly, turning his back and throwing his arms up in the air. "You religious types never help out poor old me."

"Oh… I'm not a worshipper of the temple or anything…"

Kisame turned to look at him, his forehead creased in confusion. "If you're looking for that place and aren't one of them, what difference does it make if you be my prey?"

"Enough!" Naruto shouted. "This is ridiculous! I've already got one plant trying to lure me to a bottomless pit – I do not need you on my case as well! Just get lost would you?"

"Well I see." Kisame wiped a fake tear from his eye. "If that's how you're going to be, I shan't help you."

"Help me?"

"To find that temple," he explained, pointing to the temple on the opposite side of the lake.

"That one?" Naruto was not entirely surprised to see that the building was identical to Nagato's drawing.

"Yes… oh…" Kisame's triumphant smirk turned to a frown. "I don't know why I bother some days…"

* * *

**Author's note: **I'm back! I hope you guys aren't too annoyed at me for going so long without an update *cute it-wasn't-my-fault expression*. Talking of cuteness, Kisame seems to have turned out incredibly cute here but I think he deserves some of that considering the raw deal he gets in the anime/manga looks-wise. The bit with Naruto falling was rather based on the blue bird Shippuuden opening… maybe you noticed? Anyway, see you next time!


	9. Hidan

Naruto felt suddenly sick as he glanced downward. He wasn't sure how long he had been climbing the sheer cliff wall but he was high enough to feel uneasy about falling. It seemed as though the temple above wasn't getting any closer either.

Fortunately, his footing had been relatively stable so far; he was relieved that he hadn't caused any rockslides by putting his foot in the wrong place. Mind you, the rock did have a strange texture… something smooth that he couldn't quite name.

He reached up for the next handhold. The first thing that alerted him to danger was a sickening tearing sound – his hand had ripped through the cliff!

Paper! The whole damn cliff was made of paper!

The revelation didn't give him much hope as he struggled to regain his grip on the papery rocks which now crumpled under his fingers.

He hugged tightly to the cliff, panting. Nothing was tearing now… his position seemed safe enough.

Carefully, he shifted his frame to be able to look up at the temple. How could it still not be any closer?

He sighed. If only there wasn't so much space between him and his destination…

That was it! He grinned and reached up with both hands, balancing on the balls of his feet. His fingers closed around the paper above him and he yanked downwards, the cliff folding as he pulled.

The temple descended a metre or so. He pulled again, dragging the paper towards him and with it came the temple until it was just above his head.

He raised his leg and used the ledge of crumpled paper he had formed as a step to climb up onto the terrace in front of the temple.

Smirking to himself, he ran his fingers through his hair. Finally, it seemed as if he was getting the better of this world.

He sauntered up to the temple, which was supported by four pillars holding up a lintel, marked with a huge symbol – a triangle within a circle.

"Hey! Anyone home?" He shouted. There was no answer so he walked up the steps to the huge oak doors and slipped inside.

It took a few moments for Naruto's eyes to become accustomed to the dingy interior of the temple, which was lit only by a handful of tiny windows and two or three flickering torches.

He walked forward, his footsteps echoing in the vast, empty room. A row of columns ran from either side of the door, converging on what appeared to be an altar at the far end. His feet splashed on the damp floor and he wondered how there could be water all the way up here. These thoughts were dismissed as he approached the altar.

Something was wrong here – Naruto knew that in his gut. There was something lying on the altar. In the poor light, he could only just make out the lumpy shape. Part of him wanted to run but he hadn't come all the way here for nothing. He took a flaming torch from one of the brackets on the wall and inched closer.

The orange glow cast an unstable light over the form of a bare-chested, silver-haired man prone on the altar, his body split open. The floor wasn't wet with water – it was the blood of this man!

Naruto took a few steps backwards and ran, the torch slipping from his grasp. He reached out for the door…

There was the thunk of a sharp object impacting against wood. He tried to pull the door open but it was futile; his exit was sealed shut by the triple-bladed scythe stuck in the woodwork.

Naruto turned his whole body slowly, dreading what would be found behind him.

The silver-haired corpse was sitting up where he had been lying and seemed very much alive, his arm outstretched from throwing the unusual weapon.

"Who are you?" Naruto fixed him with his darkest gaze.

The man slipped his left leg off the altar, followed by his right, and unfolded, standing high above Naruto. He took a long stride forward.

"My name is Hidan," he said. "I'm glad you're here… I was getting tired of sacrificing myself to Jashin repeatedly. It's time for fresh blood!"

His grin, which split his mouth wide open, showed a dazzling display of pure white teeth.

"Why?" Naruto didn't move. He had no where to escape to but he'd be damned if he was going to let this guy get to him.

"Why? Why?!" Hidan gave a manic peal of laughter. "My art is faith! The utmost faith requires the utmost sacrifice and the greatest sacrifice is life itself! You should be honoured boy, for you are supporting faith, the greatest of all things!"

Naruto spat on the ground in front of Hidan. "You're wrong. There are things which are more important than faith."

"Like what?"

"Like… like love."

Hidan paused for a minute, his eyes almost crossing as they danced about in thought. Moments later, he burst into laughter.

"Fools like you don't deserve an easy death!" He reached out a huge muscular arm and wrenched the scythe from the door. "I'll make you pay for underestimating faith!"

He took the handle of his weapon in both hands and swung it downwards at his victim's head. Naruto only just managed to hop away in time as the scythe smashed into the flagstones of the floor, shattering them and digging a substantial trench.

There wasn't time to breathe before Hidan swung the scythe again, forcing Naruto to duck. The three blades smashed through one of the columns. The masonry crumbled, the huge cylindrical stonework crashing to the ground.

The debris distracted Hidan long enough for Naruto to run and take shelter behind the next column. There was silence.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are…"

Naruto held his breath.

"See, the extraordinary thing about faith," Hidan murmured. Is that it gives me a sixth sense which… tells me exactly where you are!"

His sentence ended in a roar. Naruto instinctively threw himself to the ground just before the scythe obliterated his hiding spot.

He scrambled to his feet and ran back towards the altar. There had to be some sort of weapon here!

Hidan grunted. On hearing the sound, Naruto dodged to the side, the scythe whistling through the air and demolishing the remaining two columns on that side of the temple.

As the dust and rubble blasted him, Naruto tripped and fell, landing on his back, looking up. He saw then that the ceiling where the columns had been destroyed was cracked, small fragments of rock falling from it.

There was the perfect plan. He got to his feet and dashed over to the remaining columns, skidded to a halt in front of one. As he turned, Hidan attacked once more, the blades narrowly missing him and knocking down yet another supporting pillar.

The insane priest was relentless now in his fury, the three blades slicing air and masonry as one by one the remaining pillars fell.

As the last block hit the flagstones, Naruto sprinted for the door. He had timed it perfectly.

Just when Hidan was about to catch up with him, the ground was shaken by a deafening crash as the ceiling caved in. Naruto stumbled back from the dust. As the haze cleared, he saw Hidan's scowling face, his body crushed beneath the rocks.

"What the hell was that for?" He growled.

"Trying to kill me… and underestimating love." Naruto turned to leave but glanced back when Hidan spoke.

"What do you mean by love?! That little stunt could just have easily killed you and unlike me, you wouldn't be able to survive!"

Naruto smiled knowingly. "I don't think so. Love comes in many forms and… you know, somehow I think that love will protect me here…"

Hidan blinked. "You're insane. Like that Zetsu character… his white side was trying to convince me about the power of love a while back. Fortunately, the black side beat some sense into him. Now that one's my kind of guy!"

"Zetsu?" Naruto could hardly imagine the homicidal plant philosophising about love but if that were true… Did Zetsu know more than he was letting on? Was he the key to escape?

"Yeah… he said something about love being a bottomless pit but I couldn't make sense of it…"

"A bottomless pit?" Was Zetsu obsessed or could it be that there was something else to that pit…?

* * *

**Author's note: **I seem to keep accidentally slipping into first person when I'm writing this. It's strange because I used to swear by third person but now it's first person all the way! But I'm rambling… see you next time!


	10. Zetsu

"Oi! Where do you think you're going, you brat!" Hidan yelled after Naruto's retreating back.

Naruto sighed and spared the enraged priest a momentary glance over his shoulder. "I've got a plant to find."

"What about me?! You can't leave me like this!" Considering Hidan's position, crushed under several tonnes of rock, Naruto reasoned that he could leave him any way he wanted. With a cheery wave, he hoped down from the temple's terrace, which was now only a short distance from the ground. As he skirted the lake, he heard Hidan calling to Kisame.

"Hey, sharky, sharky! Come here, boy… I'll give you a treat if you help me out!"

Naruto stifled his giggling, a feat which took so much concentration that he almost tripped over Kisame, who was lying on a sun lounger with dark glasses and a pina colada. A paintbrush was lying on the ground next to him.

"Did you just paint yourself a deck chair?" Naruto asked the faux-shark.

"Uh… no…" Kisame's sunglasses slipped down, revealing his flittering eyes.

Naruto raised his eyebrows.

"I only _sketched_ the deck chair. I painted the cocktail though."

A grin stretched Naruto's cheeks. "Can I borrow your paint brush?"

Kisame shrugged and gestured to the paintbrush before lying back on the sun lounger, his fingers interlocked beneath his head. Taking that as permission, Naruto picked up the paintbrush just as Hidan shouted again.

"Get over here right now, you useless fish!"

"You going to help him?" Naruto asked mildly.

"When he gets desperate," Kisame smirked to which Naruto laughed. Leaving Kisame to his revenge, Naruto made his way over to a flat rock and tried to work out what he needed to paint. Something that would help him find Zetsu…

A tasty morsel of meat maybe? Or a loud hailer? No, those were no good! It wasn't as if he could paint that well anyway – whatever he made would almost certainly come out defective. If he could have thought outside the box, that would have been perfect but that just wasn't his thing.

He was about to throw the brush aside and revert to traditional measures when he realised that his idea didn't need to be _outside _the box at all.

With quick, sloppy brushstrokes, he painted a simple cardboard box which seemingly materialised in three-dimensional space as he worked. As soon as the box was finished, he opened it up and waded through the polystyrene balls until he found whatever it was he had painted.

The object inside the box seemed to be some sort of… device. It reminded him of a sort of Geiger counter; a striped orange cube equipped with a speaker and shoulder strap. All sorts of important-looking wires and cables emerged from various points on the cube's exterior and disappeared back inside through other points.

Kisame whistled. "Ooh, that's a nice plant detector."

A plant detector… A little green light flashed slowly atop the box and a small compass needle whizzed around to point vaguely in the direction he had come from – beneath Nagato's house, past the funfair and through the Village of the Sixth Paths. It was a long way back to the forest where he had first met Zetsu.

Damn that giant venus-fly trap! Once, not so long ago, he would have been ranting like Hidan if faced with this sort of situation. Alright, so it would be a lie to say he was totally calm – he was still pissed at having to go all the way round in a circle and made a mental note to strangle Zetsu just as soon as he'd found out everything he needed – but at least he could think long enough to solve the obstacles in his path.

"Hey, Kisame, you got any more paint?"

"Hmm…" He pondered Naruto's request for a moment. "I think I do have a small tube around here somewhere…"

He stood up and fished around in the lake with his hands. Naruto leaned forward to see if he could spot the tube of paint but had to jump back as Kisame pulled out a gigantic tube of pink paint which was taller than Naruto.

"There you go, kid!" He grinned, placing it in Naruto's arms which almost buckled under the weight. The whole tube was trembling as if it were about to explode.

"Don't mind the tremors," Kisame muttered, reclining in his seat. "It's just near reaching critical mass."

Whatever the shark said, 'critical mass' wasn't a phrase which didn't worry Naruto but, on the upside, it meant a method of transportation where he didn't have to paint anything.

He propped the tube of paint up on the rock and straddled it, the cap behind him, the end of the tube facing skywards. Clutching tightly to the metallic surface, he reached back with his foot and kicked the cap loose.

Immediately, the tube shot forward, spraying super-heated gaseous pink paint out from the rear end. Naruto gripped the tube as firmly as he could, feeling himself slide backwards along the length of the rocketing tube.

"Woohoo!" His scream of delight was yanked from his lungs by the rushing air along with the sensation from his limbs. The tube was shaking beneath him, like a bucking-bronco trying to throw him off.

In front of him, there was nothing but bright blue sky and whispy clouds, through which he tore. He shot out of the clouds, past the little cottage where Nagato and Konan ogled him from the doorway, and arced high into the air.

The tube shuddered and gave a slight splutter. Naruto glanced behind to see his transportation cough out the last few clouds of pink gas before angling its nose downwards and plummeting.

Naruto sighed. From now on, he'd take a parachute with him wherever he went.

Desperately, Naruto tried to pull the end of the tube up to lessen the steepness of the descent. The metal bent easily now that the tube was empty and the tube's angle of descent narrowed to something slightly less terrifying. Unfortunately, somehow his adjustments seemed to have caused the tube's speed to increase…

The green ground blurred as he careened towards it.

He jumped free from the tube just before it smashed into the ground, spun into the air and exploded against a tree trunk. Naruto staggered to his feet as the tree burst into bright pink flames.

"Your landing needs a little working on." Naruto turned to see Zetsu half-emerged from the ground.

"Zetsu!" He grinned, feeling a little light-headed from his entrance. "Just who I was looking for!"

The black half of Zetsu gave him barely a moment's look before saying, "Nothing doing!" and disappearing into the ground.

"Come back!" The ground didn't move. Naruto snarled and pulled out the plant detector. It took him a few seconds to realise why the needle was whizzing around without stopping – he was surrounded by plants, standing at the edge of the grassy meadow through which he had walked with Yahiko.

"Hey, Zetsu," Naruto called out. "Don't come back."

"Reverse psychology ain't going to work on me," Zetsu laughed, sticking out from a branch over Naruto's head.

"You idiot," the black half scowled. "He tricked you."

"What? Oh…" Realisation dawned on the white half. "Well he half-tricked you too."

"What did you say, you utter imbecile?!"

Naruto sighed. "Um, guys? Which way is it to… uh… the Village of the Six Paths?"

Zetsu stopped arguing and looked at Naruto. A moist, red tongue shot out and licked both halves of his lips.

"That way," the black half smirked as he pointed in the wrong direction for the Village. A number of wooden signs marked 'bottomless pit' also popped up, pointing in the same direction.

"Thanks," Naruto smiled and set off, following the signs. Behind him, Zetsu triumphantly muttered,

"Sucker!"

"Same goes to you," Naruto murmured under his breath.

* * *

**Author's note: **Looks like I didn't get much time to explore Zetsu's character… which is a pity because he's one of my favourite Akatsuki members and would probably have been quite interesting. Ah well, he got plenty of screen-time earlier in the story so he can't really complain.


	11. Tobi

**Author's note: **Though I did tell myself I'd stop apologising for slow updates, I've kept you waiting for a long time, so sorry. I also feel I should account for the lack of SasuNaru thus far… but I can't so you'll just have to excuse me. Originally, this story was posted with Naruto & Akatsuki because I knew Sasuke wouldn't be there in person much but no one was reading it so I changed it to Naruto & Sasuke. Anyway, enough apologies – enjoy the penultimate chapter!

* * *

One foot in front of the other. He was beginning to quicken his pace.

He reached out a hand and ran it through the shimmering strands of grass that brushed against his legs. The individual blades seemed to have been coloured in with green pencil – while on some, the ones closest to him, the shading was immaculate, on others it was mere scribbles.

As he passed another sign pointing to the bottomless pit, he broke into a jog; though the grass was knee-high, no one had bothered to give the ground any texture so he wasn't in danger of tripping over.

"Hey wait!" Naruto didn't look back at the sound of Zetsu's voice. Instead, he increased his speed – his feet slammed against the smooth ground as he ran.

Something snatched his wrist as he passed, causing Naruto to lose his balance. Zetsu's grip prevented him from falling over.

"What do you want?" Naruto's glare quickly turned into a frown. Only half of Zetsu was there; the black half was missing. "Where's the rest of you?"

"He's gone to inform _him _of your arrival," Zetsu gave a cryptic smirk. "But between you and me… maybe it would be better if you turned back now…"

A low whistle ran through the air as the wind ruffled the grass around their feet. Naruto shook himself free of Zetsu's grasp.

"I've made my decision," he announced tersely. Zetsu could not be trusted – whatever awaited him, it lay between him and his escape. Facing it was inevitable.

He sprinted on, past another sign. Behind him, the white half of Zetsu tutted.

"It's your funeral!"

Whatever. Naruto felt a strange confidence, as thouh the pit were drawing him nearer. As he thought about it, he realised no one had specifically said that the pit was the way out, yet somehow it just felt right. That pit held the key.

The grass slowly became less defined, moving from pencil shades to mere childish squiggles of green and then the grey of pencil lead. Clearly, no one came to this part of the world.

He cast his gaze around for another sign and found it. However, this one stood in the middle of the path. He slowed to a stop, doubling up and breathing deep after his run.

This signpost was incredibly simple; a rectangle supported by a stake in the ground. Slightly disconcertingly, the whole sign was two-dimensional so that if Naruto looked at it from the side, it disappeared entirely.

Written in thick black letters were the words 'bottomless pit' and an arrow pointing downwards. Naruto looked down at the ground. The sign was over a patch of scribble which could have represented anything at all but certainly didn't look like the gaping black hole he had expected from a bottomless pit.

Tentatively, he sprung up on the balls of his feet. The scribble flexed but didn't break.

He sighed. This was it; he'd gone completely insane.

He jumped in the air and landed as heavily as he could on the centre of the scribble. There was a resonating crack which seemed to echo deep into the ground, like an avalanche of sound. There was only a second of elation at finding the pit before the scribble shattered into hundreds of tiny grey shards and Naruto plummeted into the blackness beneath it.

He was falling. That was obvious.

However, there wasn't the rush of air which he had come accustomed to when falling from heights which should have killed him. All there was to indicate he was falling was an uneasy sensation in his stomach and the lack of solid ground beneath his feet; other than that, he could have been standing in a pitch-black room.

A shrill laughter rang out, clamouring through the endless darkness.

"Who's there?" Naruto called, readying himself for a fight.

There was a clonk, like a heavy footstep on ancient flagstones. A cloaked figure stepped forward, his face obscured by a low hood.

"I have many names…" He murmured. "I am the Gate Keeper, the Protector and the Lord of the Dark. It is my duty to control who may enter and leave this domain and to safeguard its inhabitants. You may call me…" He paused ominously. "… Tobi."

"Tobi?" Naruto repeated.

"Yes…" The figure slipped off his hood, revealing an orange spiral mask with a single eyehole. "Is there anything wrong with that?"

"I was… uh… expecting something slightly more, well, grand…"

Tobi roared, causing Naruto to flinch back. "Naruto Uzumaki! Isn't that just you all over?! You have no consideration for other people! No appreciation for art! You care only for yourself!"

"That's not true." Naruto clenched his fists.

Tobi stepped forward, seeming to tower over Naruto. "Since you came here, you have caused no end of damage. You saved Itachi's life –"

"How is that bad?!"

He ignored Naruto's protest. "Then you changed the relationship between Deidara and Sasori –"

"They should be able to get along!" Naruto tried to interrupt. Tobi reached out and snatched the front of Naruto's jacket.

"You made Konan where glasses, fleeced Kakuzu, crushed Hidan and gave Kisame a position of power over him! And as a final insult to this land, you tricked Zetsu!"

Naruto brushed him off and took a few steps back, though they were more like planned stumbles.

"What are you talking about? Everyone's better off, thanks to me!" Well, technically Hidan and Zetsu weren't but in the long run, being taken down a peg or two would be good for them.

"What shameful ignorance is this?!" Tobi's voice grew louder, like thunder. "You have no understanding of the way things work here! Everyone has a role which they fulfil time over time.

"Yahiko and the other villagers should just sit around oblivious to the suffering around them, but you changed that! Nagato was fated to live by himself, yet now Konan can see properly, she'll move in with him! Can't you see the irreversible damage you've done?"

"All I see," Naruto growled. "Is a masked idiot who's too stuck in his ways to see good things when they happen!"

This time, it took a few moments before Tobi responded. When he did, his tone had returned to normal but kept a haughty edge.

"Perhaps where you come from, change is good, but you do not understand. This is a fragment of Sasuke's heart. Hearts should not be changed from within."

"People shouldn't fall into other people's hearts either!" Naruto snapped, barely pausing to think. "And besides, if the heart didn't want to change, I wouldn't be able to do anything abut it!"

"Moron!" Tobi yelled. "You're a filthy hypocrite! You say these words about what's good and what's right, yet inside, you are the cruellest of them all! Don't forget, that it is you that fixed the way Sasuke's heart is! You caused the pain and the suffering!"

"W… what?" Surely Tobi was exaggerating? Sasuke and Naruto had their rivalry but it was mutual hatred… how could that have caused him pain and suffering?

The words that Itachi had said on the tiny wave-tossed boat adrift in the Sea of Hate came to him at that moment. Such is the nature of hatred.

The sound of dripping resonated around him. Drip, drip. It wasn't a drip like water but the soft patter of melted wax. Gradually, a series of figurines rose up around him like stalagmites, taking on more and more details as they grew.

Naruto twisted around, staring at the waxwork scenes. A young Sasuke slumped against the wall with Naruto standing over him. Naruto glaring at Sasuke as his painting was revealed. The hurt look in Sasuke's eyes as a furious Naruto turned his back and stormed from the room. Sasuke sobbing on the floor beside the bodies of his murdered parents.

"That wasn't me!" Naruto shouted, pointing at the last image as Tobi came to stand behind him.

"But you did nothing to ease his pain. When your hand could have pulled him from darkness, you allowed the hatred to be ingrained on his heart."

The drops that fell now were Naruto's tears. He tried to form words that would absolve him of guilt but they wouldn't come. In desperation, he whirled and slammed his fist into Tobi's face.

The mask cracked along the centre and slid from his face in two pieces. Naruto found a pair of cold blue eyes piercing him. Tobi's mouth was thin and not even the whiskers on his cheeks softened the expression.

Naruto gaped at the identical face. For the first time, he felt like he was truly falling.


	12. Naruto

**Author's note: **I really am so sorry that I took so long to get around to write this… I've kept you waiting for the last chapter for so long that I really do feel bad about it. I _have_ been busy with schoolwork and other projects but that's no excuse. I hope it's been worth the wait, though. Gomenasai.

* * *

"You… you're me?" Naruto gasped. His doppelganger stared at him, unblinkingly.

"No," Tobi spat. "I am not you – I am the Naruto that lives in Sasuke's heart. The one who Sasuke needs in his life… the one whom he would love."

"What are you talking about?" Naruto stumbled backwards, colliding with one of the waxwork dummies. He twisted around to see a likeness of himself staring with narrowed, scornful eyes, presumably at Sasuke.

He turned his head, finding that he was surrounded by waxworks of himself with various expressions of hatred which he had worn towards Sasuke. None of them moved.

So which one was Tobi?

Naruto carefully took a step forward, though he avoided looking down as he did so – it was unnerving not to have anything below him.

"Tobi!" He shouted, spinning around. "Where are you hiding?"

He reached out to touch the nearest figure, feeling its waxy surface under his hand. Where his skin touched the wax, the colour changed, turning from orange to dark blue. The change spread over the figure, morphing it into a wax Sasuke; wide eyed with glistening cheeks.

"No…" Naruto backed away from the new figure, brushing past two others. He turned in horror, seeing them change too, into hurt Sasukes. "No… I don't want this!"

He ran forward, pushing through the crowd of waxworks, trying to shut his eyes to the waves of sorrowful blue that were spreading out. If only the waxworks would stop… why were there so many?

Forcing his way forwards, he spotted an opening and dived for it. He was only just able to stop himself from smashing into the rocky wall which was whooshing upwards like a belt sander.

There was a slow clapping from somewhere within the huge group of Sasukes, all of which were turned towards him. Tobi stepped out from behind the one closest to him.

"That was lucky," he sneered. "But it won't help you."

"Why not?" Naruto glanced about him, looking for a way out.

Tobi swung his fist forward; Naruto dodged to the side and around Tobi, leaving his back to the Sasukes.

"You're not going to leave here," Tobi smirked. "Sasuke will be better off without you!"

There was a cold hand on Naruto's shoulder. One of the waxworks had reached out and grabbed him.

"What? Wait!" A second waxwork placed its hand on his other shoulder. Slippery fingers closed around his wrists. "Let me go!"

"Goodbye, Naruto." Tobi's grin was the last thing to be obscured as the Sasukes crowded around Naruto, their unforgiving hands pulling him into their midst. Before long, Naruto had disappeared.

Naruto was no more, swallowed by vengeful wax Sasukes.

"Tobi, stop." A voice intoned. "You've done enough. Let him go."

Tobi raised his head, a frown on his face, though it was unclear whether he was confused by the disembodied voice itself or by the words that had been spoken. After a while, he nodded solemnly.

The wax Sasukes began to melt, their features becoming blurred as the wax ran and the figures drooped, sinking into puddles of wax. The puddles merged, forming a pond of blue-white wax, and at the centre, was the kneeling orange figure of Naruto, his arms locked over his head.

Realising, no one was holding him, Naruto looked up. He could have sworn he had just heard Sasuke's voice, loud, clear and… kind. But Sasuke was nowhere to be seen – it had to have been his imagination.

Tobi looked down at Naruto, his face partially obscured by shadow so that it was a few moments before Naruto realised he was smiling.

"Go," he said. "Make Sasuke happy."

Naruto smiled back. "I will."

He moved to stand, but the air beneath him suddenly ceased to support his weight and he plummeted down into the endless blackness.

…

His face crunched against solid ground.

"Dammit," he moaned, unsteadily getting to his feet. He clutched his nose – there was a splatter of blood on the polished floor and more was running down his arm. He reached into his pocket for a tissue but his hand closed on something with sharper edges. Intrigued, he withdrew his hand, finding a violet origami flower in his palm.

"Konan?" He muttered.

A movement caught his eye at the far end of the hall. He caught a glimpse of a dark-haired boy hurrying away. Sasuke…

A sudden panic caught his chest. This was the school hall which meant… He sighed in relief as he saw Sasuke's painting was intact, between its red velvet curtains. Thank goodness he hadn't done any damage to it.

There was light coming in through the window… so did that mean it was morning? He must have been in that painting for hours.

He got to his feet, trying to keep his nose covered, though the blood had already dripped all over his clothes.

"Sasuke!" He shouted, his voice sounding slightly nasal to his ears. Part of him was concerned that his nose was broken but right now, it was more important that he speak to Sasuke. "Sasuke, come back!"

Sasuke froze in the middle of the corridor and turned back to Naruto who came hurrying along to him.

"What do you want?" He demanded. That was the tone Naruto had always thought was disdain, but now he realised it was defensive… a shield against harm.

"I wanted to say sorry," Naruto mumbled, his mouth half-full of blood.

"What?" Sasuke stared at him.

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry for everything I've ever done…" He stopped, seeing Sasuke stretch his hand out towards him with a pristine white tissue. Looking up from the tissue, Naruto saw a glisten in Sasuke's eyes and a smile on his lips.

"Take it."

"Thanks," Naruto pressed the tissue to his nose, the blood immediately soaking into it.

"You look better already," Sasuke smiled. "And thank you, Naruto."

"I'm not done apologising yet!"

Sasuke laughed and made a strange movement as if to reach out his hand but quickly retracted it. "You've said enough. Thank you."

"There was one more thing I wanted to say…" He almost found himself looking down at his feet but made sure he was looking up at Sasuke, directly into his eyes when he spoke. "I know I can't make up for what I've done… but I want you to know that I'm always going to be here for you from now on."

Again, Sasuke chuckled but this time it seemed as though it were to disguise the fact that he was trying to hold back tears. "Naruto… what's brought this on? I thought you… I thought you hated me?"

Naruto looked back over his shoulder. He could see straight through the hall to the Akatsuki Portrait.

"I was just admiring your artwork… and thinking about things. About us."

"Really?" Sasuke raised his eyebrows. "Not many people understand modern art. To be honest, no offence but I didn't think you would be the sort to admire it."

Naruto shook his head with a smile as he looked at the painting which had changed his life. "I think you need to experience modern art to understand it. To really feel _inside _it."

Sasuke came to stand beside him. "And what did you feel?"

"Many things…" Naruto paused in thought. "Fear, hope, happiness… but most of all it made me feel shame."

"Shame?"

"About the past… but it made me realise another feeling that I've had for years but buried so deep inside…" He grinned, as he thought about it. Sasuke didn't seem to understand.

"What was that?"

Naruto reached out his fingers to touch Sasuke's skin.

"I'll tell you some other time," he said, as their hands entwined.


End file.
